Portland made two big offseason moves, neither of which has borne much fruit yet. Evan Turner is averaging 6.4 points a game and shooting just 40 percent coming off the Blazers’ bench.
Then there is Festus Ezeli, the former Warriors’ big man, but he has yet to see the court following a knee procedure this summer. And he’s going to be out a little while longer now than the six weeks originally projected, reports Jason Quick at CSNNW.com.Trail Blazers center Festus Ezeli last month suffered a minor setback in his comeback from a left knee procedure, CSNNW.com has learned.
Ezeli suffered swelling in his left knee after he took part in two Blazers practices on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, after which the Blazers have pulled back on his activity.
“I practiced, and that’s what happens sometimes – it reacts, swells up, you go back, regress and come back,’’ Ezeli said Tuesday night before the Blazers game with Phoenix.
Questions about his knees had driven down his price over the summer (although he still got $7.4 million this season, $16 million over two with a team option), and in August he got an injection of bone marrow aspirate in there to help it heal. That has not worked like planned yet.
Portland, at 5-3 with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum playing brilliantly, can be patient. But the team certainly could use his rim protection; it would give them a new level of depth and versatility up front.
